


For the Love of a Brother

by ArsenicInYourPudding



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Macy's Gift Fic Giveaway 2k13, This was SUPPOSED to be Thorki, at least that's what the request was, but it turned out a bit more brotastic than I had intended, for xnormalityworksx on tumblr, oh well
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-25
Updated: 2013-07-25
Packaged: 2017-12-21 07:04:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/897300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArsenicInYourPudding/pseuds/ArsenicInYourPudding
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Thor pulls dumb shit, Loki makes a half-hearted attempt at not caring enough to fix it, and No One Tells Mom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the Love of a Brother

**Author's Note:**

> This is a gift fic for xnormalityworksx, AKA the lovely Kristen, for my Tumblr Fic Giveaway. If you'd like to get in on the fic action and have me write something just for you, drop by my askbox on my tumblr (rockymthorrorshow), and leave me an ask with your fandom (currently only doing Avengers Movieverse, Young Justice, Beyblade (original only, please), Teen Wolf, or any other fandom you may see featured prominently on my blog), your characters of choice (OTP, BroTP, or otherwise), and a general idea of what you want (ie. "hurt/comfort, if possible involve a bathtub"). 
> 
> Deadline for asks is August 10-ish, so if you send me an ask on the 12th, I'm probably not gonna turn you down, I'm just gonna bitch at you lovingly about it. xD

Loki looked up from his book, eyes narrowed at the galumphing footsteps he could hear tramping down the corridor to his chambers. He’d expressly asked to be left alone for the evening, and there was only one person in all of Asgard brave - or stupid - enough to disobey his wishes.

“Thor,” he bellowed, heaving himself up from his window seat and storming down to the door. “You are _not_ allowed in my chambers, not smelling like an unwashed dwarf! You will--”

He wrenched the door open and stilled, eyes wide. Thor leaned heavily on the door frame, his face waxy and slack with exhaustion. “Brother,” he began, eyes closed with the effort.

“Stop talking,” Loki huffed, hauling him into the room. “Where are you hurt?”

Despite himself, Thor smiled. “I thought you wanted me to stop talking.”

“ _Ugh_ , you’re insufferable,” Loki snapped. “Armor, _off_.”

Thor stumbled, trying to undo his chestplate with unsteady fingers. “Oh, let me,” Loki grumbled, shoving his brother’s paws away from the straps. “You’re hopeless.”

With great effort and great impatience on Loki’s part, they managed to strip Thor to his trousers, bits of armor and clothing laying haphazard and bloody on the floor around them. A gash on his ribcage bled sluggishly, and Thor’s naturally blazing internal heat was gone. “Where _were_ you,” Loki demanded softly.

“I... I snuck into Jotunheim,” Thor admitted, sounding a mite sheepish underneath the pained exhaustion. “The spell...that you taught me.”

Thoughtlessly, Loki smacked his chest. “ _That_ is why you’re so exhausted! I taught you the spell thinking you only meant to get from the training hall to your chambers, not to _another realm_ entirely! You barely have the stamina for _one_ trip, much less-- Ugh, and you didn’t even think to at least tell _me_ where you were going!”

Thor winced. “Would you not have stopped me?”

“I would have _gone with you_ , you brainless oaf,” Loki hissed. “Kept this from happening-- You _know_ only a fool travels to the realm of another alone!”

Thor said nothing in reply, only rested his chin atop Loki’s head and heaved an exhausted sigh. Loki grumbled and wound his arms around Thor’s midsection to keep him on his feet. “You’re freezing,” the younger told him crossly, “and _filthy_ , on top of it. Ugh. Come on, I’ll draw you a bath.”

Obediently, Thor let himself be half-led, half-carried back to Loki’s washroom, a dim, cavernous space cased in grey-green stone and lit by multitudes of candles. At a wave of Loki’s hand, they all burned higher, filling the space with light.

Loki deposited Thor on a bench off to the ide and set to filling the enormous crater of a tub in the center of the room. “What could you possibly have been seeking in Jotunheim, anyway,” Loki asked over his shoulder as he set about filling the tub.

“I... I cannot remember,” Thor said, brow furrowing with the effort of thought. “It was...important, perhaps, but it eludes me now.”

“Typically so,” Loki grumbled. His hand swept over the surface of the water, clouding it with heat, and he tilted to his feet. “Come, we’ll get you clean and warm again, and then I’ll see to your wound.”

“Please, do not tell Mother,” Thor pled as Loki pulled him to his feet. “She...”

“I _should_ tell Mother,” Loki snapped. “Would serve you right for running off alone on a fool’s errand, and then having the _gall_ to bother me about it when it went wrong.”

Thor sank into the water with an exhausted sigh. “Thank you,” he said finally.

“For what?”

“Not telling. I knew I could trust you.”

Loki huffed, but didn’t disagree. He perused a cabinet full of unlabeled containers and bandage rolls before settling on a large, squat cobalt jar and a shimmering bottle the color of opals.

Thor cracked one eye open as Loki uncorked the bottle on the edge of the tub. The scent of pine trees and cinnamon filled the air. “What is that?”

“Soap. I’m not surprised you’re unfamiliar with it,” Loki said archly. He splashed some in his cupped palm. “Hold still.” He worked the liquid into a lather on Thor’s scalp, fingers pulling gently at the tangles in the golden strands.

Thor all but melted into the side of the tub under Loki’s hands. Loki sighed and moved his ministrations to Thor’s shoulders. “That you didn’t attempt to at _least_ take Sif or the Warriors Three along is surprising,” he said finally. “Not unwelcome, you would have certainly killed yourself had you tried, but surprising nonetheless.”

“I... I believe...” Thor shook his head sluggishly. “It was a foolish thought.”

Loki’s fingers dug into the knots at the base of Thor’s neck. “That has never stopped you before now. Tell me anyway?”

“I...believed, that to undertake this quest alone, would be more honorable...more deserving of glory. But it is... It is unclear to me now _why_.”

“Shh, don’t strain yourself,” Loki murmured, resting his cheek against the curve of Thor’s neck. “You are safe now, and whatever it was you sought isn’t important. Not anymore.”

“Perhaps it will return to me with a night’s rest,” Thor muttered.

“And a night’s rest you shall have, once I finish bandaging the evidence of your foolishness. Come on, out of the tub, you’ve warmed some now.”

Thor reluctantly maneuvered to his feet. “If I _am_ warm again,” he grumbled tiredly, “why am I yet this cold?”

Loki handed him a robe. “I said _some_ , not _entirely._ You’re lucky you escaped unfrozen. Come here, sit.” Long, pale fingers dipped in the cobalt jar, coming out burdened with a paste that smelled faintly of woodsmoke. Delicately, he rubbed it into the now-clean skin around the wound - the cut was not as deep as it had seemed, still caked in the blood and grime of battle, and Loki was profoundly grateful. An injury any larger than this would have tested his resolve to keep quiet, if not his skill. “There. I’ll bandage that and then you can be on your way. No one should stand between your room and mine, not this late at night.”

Thor frowned as Loki tucked the bandages around themselves. “My room is very far indeed,” he said, not sheepishly enough for Loki’s tastes, “and I fear I may be too tired to make it alone. And I _am_ yet unnaturally cold...”

Loki huffed. “Do you wish to stay the night here,” he translated flatly, with a small twinge of annoyance lost in a wave of affection.

“If I may, brother,” Thor said. Loki could swear he saw him wobble purposefully on his feet.

“We are not children, Thor,” Loki reminded him automatically.

“You had your coming-of-age ceremony not two hundred years ago,” Thor argued.

“And it’s been at _least_ five since yours.” Nevertheless, Loki pulled Thor’s arm around himself and let him back to the bed chamber. “You’d better not talk in your sleep, after all the trouble I’ve gone to for you tonight.”

Thor had the grace to look embarrassed as he collapsed onto the ed. “Thank you,” he sighed, stretching out on almost exactly one half of the enormous bed. Loki slid in next to him and curled up on his side with a huff that was mostly for show.

“Tis a warm day in Jotunheim indeed when I am being counted on to _warm_ you, instead of the other way round,” he muttered into the pillow. “You’ve always run hotter than I have.”

“Some things can change,” Thor mumbled sleepily. “Though never that I am grateful to have you for my brother.”

Loki sighed in response, and felt an oak branch of an arm, remarkably careful for its size and the owner’s weariness, wind around his chest. “Go to sleep, Thor,” he whispered, and felt the blond pull him tighter and nuzzle the back of his neck.

“Goodnight, brother,” Loki felt more than heard. “Sleep well.”


End file.
